Conditioning/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby is reaching for a jar of cookies. Behind him, Tim stands holding a red controller buzzer. (Buzz) As a buzzer sounds, Moby stops reaching for the jar. Moby begins to reach for the jar again. As he presses the controller's button, the buzzer sounds again. TIM: Heh-heh. (Buzz) Moby reaches for the jar again, but stop when the buzzer sounds. Moby's facial expression changes to show annoyance. Tim flashes a tooth grin. Tim is alone holding the controller. Moby then walks into the room holding two cookies. MOBY: Beep. He offers one of the cookies to Tim, who is holding the controller to the buzzer. TIM: Mmm, a cookie. Tim takes a bite out of the cookie. (Machinery is beeping.) TIM: Hmm? Moby prints off a letter. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, why does my dog start drooling when he hears a can opener? From, Athena. If you have a pet dog or cat, you've probably noticed that they get kind of excited when they hear you preparing their food. The reason is that you've been conditioning your pet, maybe without even realizing it! Conditioning is a kind of learning where an animal makes a connection between two different things. (An electric can opener is running.) A dog is looking at the source of the noise, a can opener that is opening a can of dog food. TIM: For example, a lot of dogs associate the sound of a can opener with being fed. A thought bubble shows the dog is thinking about the can opener. A second thought bubble shows the dog eating dog food. TIM: That's why they often respond with the reflex of drooling. The dog begins to drool. MOBY: Beep? TIM: A reflex is a wired-in response to a stimulus — like pulling away from water that’s too hot. Text reads: reflex A foot dips one toe into a bath filled with steaming water. It quickly removes the toe from the water. TIM: But some responses aren't reflexive; they're learned. Conditioning is a way to teach these new behaviors. The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov was a major pioneer in experimenting with conditioning. A man with white hair and beard, Ivan Pavlov, is dressed in a suit. TIM: Like everyone else, Pavlov knew that dogs drool in the presence of food. An image beside Pavlov shows a dog drooling. TIM: But he also noticed something new: dogs in his lab would drool whenever they saw the technician who fed them. A dog is in an isolated room in a lab. As a technician walks past the window of the room the dog is in, the dog begins to drool. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Well, food is an unconditioned stimulus. All dogs react to it by drooling. Text reads: unconditioned stimulus TIM: The drooling is an unconditioned response, or a reflex. Text reads: unconditioned response. TIM: They don't have to be taught to drool at food; they just do it. All that saliva will help the dog digest her meal. But what if you ring a bell right before you feed the dog? (Bell rings.) A graphic of the head of a dog appears on the left and a bell appears next on the right. As the bell rings, a person places a bowl of food in front of the dog. The dog begins to drool. TIM: The first few times, the dog responds just like before. (Bell rings.) A graphic of the head of a dog appears on the left and a bell appears next on the right. As the bell rings, a person places a bowl of food in front of the dog. The dog begins to drool. TIM: She drools only when she smells the food. (Bell rings.) A graphic of the head of a dog appears on the left and a bell appears next on the right. As the bell rings, a person places a bowl of food in front of the dog. The dog begins to drool. TIM: Pretty soon, though, the dog will start to drool when she hears the bell ring, even if she doesn’t get fed. (Bell rings.) A graphic of the head of a dog appears on the left and a bell appears next on the right. The dog begins to drool. TIM: She's been conditioned to respond to the bell like it's food. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the ringing of the bell is a conditioned stimulus. Text reads: conditioned stimulus TIM: The bell didn’t mean anything to the dog until she learned it was associated with food. A bell shows on the left of screen. An arrow is pointing from the bell to a bowl of dog food. TIM: And that's how classical conditioning works! Text reads: classical conditioning TIM: You train an animal to exhibit a conditioned response, like drooling, when presented with a conditioned stimulus, like a bell! Text reads: conditioned response The dog is on the left of the screen. The dog starts to drool. Text reads: conditioned stimulus The bell appears on the right. TIM: In his first experiment, Pavlov used a metronome, not a bell — but just about anything could work! (Bell rings.) A metronome is appears beside the graphic of Pavlov. The metronome disappears and is replaced by a ringing bell. The bell disappears and is replaced by a flashlight that is clicking on and off. The flashlight disappears and is replaced by fingers snapping. TIM: What's more important is the order of the two stimuli. If you ring a bell before bringing out the food, the dog will quickly learn to associate the two things. (Bell rings.) The dog is standing, waiting. A bell rings and then food is placed in front of the dog. The dog begins to drool. TIM: But if you reverse the order, it doesn't work nearly as well. (Bell rings.) The dog is eating from a bowl of food as the bell rings. A thought bubble with a question mark appears above the dog. TIM: And the less time there is between the two stimuli, the more effective the conditioning will be! (Bell rings.) The dog is waiting as a bell rings. A stopwatch starts recording time as the bell rings. As the food is placed in front of the dog, the stopwatch stops and the dog drools. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Oh no, humans can be conditioned, too. One form of conditioning we've all experienced is being scolded by our parents for doing something bad. A young child is drawing on a wall with a crayon. An adult shakes his finger at the boy, and the boy stops drawing on the wall. TIM: Scolding a child is an unconditioned stimulus; children react to it instinctively by feeling bad. By pairing the punishment stimulus with an unwanted behavior, the parent teaches the child to associate the behavior with the scolding. A thought bubble shows that the young child with a sad face is thinking about the finger shaking. A second thought bubble shows that the child is then thinking about the drawing on the wall. TIM: If the child has learned properly, just thinking about the bad behavior will produce the unpleasant feeling of being scolded. A red X crosses out the drawing on the wall. TIM: This kind of learning is called operant conditioning. Text reads: operant conditioning TIM: That's when an animal or person makes a link between its own behavior and a reward or punishment. The young child is considering his thoughts. One of the thoughts is the finger shaking, and one of the thoughts is the drawing on the wall. TIM: Operant conditioning helps animals and people avoid pain and danger… and repeat behaviors that make them happy and healthy! A coyote looks at a porcupine with sharp quills. A thought bubble shows that the coyote is thinking about the sharp quills launching towards it. The scene changes and a monkey is holding a leaf while standing next to a tree with a small hole in it. A thought bubble shows that the monkey is thinking about the leaf with insects crawling on it while the monkey eats some of the insects. MOBY: Beep. Moby offers Tim a cookie. TIM: Oh, thank you! (Machinery is beeping.) Tim begins to eat the cookie as Moby makes a beeping sound. TIM: Mmmm, that was a good cookie. (Machinery is beeping.) Tim begins to drool. TIM: Hey, what … what's going on? Tim tries to contain his drooling. TIM: Aw, man — I can't stop… drooling. (Machinery is beeping.) Tim slurps and tries to stop drooling. TIM: Help! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts